Pilot (Chasing Silhouettes)
|} The pilot episode of the television series Chasing Silhouettes premiered on the RTN network on January 8, 2009. The pilot was written by series creators Adam Harzela, Robert Staven and George Valley and was directed by Lawrence Brawley. The episode introduces the character Natasha Scott, portrayed by Rebekah Millner, a FBI special agent and her collegues Chris Mitchell and Stuart Young, who, after an extreme case, are introduced to the world of science fiction. David Blakely portrays Chris and Steven Malbourne portrays Stuart Young. The pilot was filmed on location in New York City and Paris, France. The episode cost $10 million to produce, being one of the most expensive pilots in television history. The episode was well recieved by critics and was watched by 13.21 million Ryanland viewers on it's premiere, making it the highest viewed and highest rated episode to date of the series. The episode lasts for 81 minutes, but is still considered a single episode. Plot A doctor in a hospital in Paris, injects bodies inside the morgue with a substance, which brings them back to life. In the morning, everyone inside the hospital were dead, patients, doctors, nurses and visitors. Back in New York City, FBI agents Natasha Scott (Millner), Chris Mitchell (Blakely) and Stuart Young (Malbourne) are called by their director, Nicolas Henry (Richard Bleike) to investigate the case in Paris. When they arrive at the hospital they find a mysterious blue substance on the floor in the morgue, identical to the injections the doctor gave to the bodies. Then they find out that the bodies inside the morgue were gone. While Chris and Stuart stay in Paris, Natasha goes back to New York to give a report on what happened. Nicolas then tells her about mysterious occurences that had been happening over the past few months, all involving scientific theory, and that he was trying to put a specialist group together to handle these things, and that he wanted her to be a part of it. She declined, believing what he was saying was a lie. Meanwhile in Paris, a family are watching television together and the door opens, a man enters and sits down next to the mother. It is revealed that the man was actually her husband, who died many years ago. Chris and Stuart begin to see news reports on the television stating that "loved ones were coming back to life" and they reported live from the families house with the husband who died many years ago. Following this they looked at the hospital files and found out that that man was actually in the morgue at the hospital. When the news reporter leaves their house, the husband kills his wife and teenage son telling them that he needs them for the plan. Back in New York, Nicolas hears about these occurences and calls in scientist Dr. Richard Gray to help them with the case. Gray reveals that the only explanation for the occurences was science, and that he needed to investigate a lab. A lab is set up for him underground, beneath the New York Public Library, and he tests the blue liquid found on the floor in the morgue, which he finds out is a drug which can re-start your heart. Natasha finds out about this, and finally starts to believe in the theory and agrees to join the specialist group, she then flies to paris to join Chris and Stuart. Meanwhile in a warehouse close to the Eiffel Tower, a large group of people from the morgue are lined up in front of the the man that brought them back, he told them to do what he told them to do when he brought them back, they then head towards the Eiffel Tower in lines and begin to climb to the top. Natasha, Chris and Stuart find out that the mans name is Andrew Ruben, and that he is a terrorist who has been involved in past occurences in the last few months. Upon hearing this they get a team together and try and find him, with no luck they return to think of new ways to get him. Back in the lab in New York City, computer specialist, Amanda Sullivan joins Richard to help him create an antidote to send the undead back to death, and they manage to create it, but they cannot transport it to Paris. In Paris, Natasha looks through CCTV footage and finds Andrew Ruben and the dead bodies entering the Eiffel Tower, she alerts the others and they leave. Back on the Eiffel Tower, the dead bodies and Andrew had reached the top, and they were strapping bombs to the side of the tower, while others on other levels were doing the same. When Natasha arrived, the insists that she go alone, so that they don't suspect anything, and she goes undercover as a tourist. As she gets to the top, Andrew does not fall for her act, and finds out she is an FBI agent, he attacks her, takes her gun and ties her to the edge of the tower. The bombs strapped to the side are set to 15 minutes. After a showdown, Andrew reveals he brought the bodies back to life so he could create a terrorist group do destroy major landmarks and kill thousands of people. However this backfires when she unties herself and runs to the bottom with just a few seconds to spare. But it was too late for the landmark as the bombs exploded and the tower fell to the ground, but before it touched the ground, the landmark returned back to it's original state, killing no one. It was later revealed that Andrew installed a reverser so that if his plan backfired everything would return to normal. The dead bodies were now actually dead inside the morgue and everyone who dissapeared in the hospital had returned to normal. When they returned to New York City, Natasha, Chris and Stuart join the new specialist group, which they later call, The Silhouette Division. Production Co-creator Adam Harzela's inspiration for Chasing Silhouettes came from the highly popular 2008-present American science-fiction television series, Fringe. The specific story for Chasing Silhouettes was developed during long conversations between series creators Harzela, Robert Staven and George Valley. The team were discussing several different options, with the most likely being a story in which a woman finds an organization which deals with supernatural occurences, however this idea was never used, but a similar plot to that is featured in the 2012 GenerationTV series The Blind Spot. In the end the team decided on a story in which three FBI agents get involved in investigating mysterious occurences involving science fiction. The first actor to be cast in the pilot was Richard Bleike in mid February 2008. David Blakely and Seth Grabel were the next to be cast, although it was believed incorrectly that J.D. Knight had been cast in Blakely's role, however he did audition for the role. This was followed by the casting of both Blair Anders and Rebekah Millner. Harzela stated that Millner was cast because she was a combination between great talent, amazing looks, strength and power which were all important in the role of Natasha. The last series regular to be cast was Steven Malbourne. There was believed another role for the character "Diana Roberts", Dr. Richard Gray's ex-wife. The creators were apparently looking at casting Eva Marie Cophen. However the role was never written into the show. The pilot was picked up on March 19, 2008 and was picked up to a series on May 14, 2008. While the series was supposed to premiere in September 2008, but everything was behind schedule, so RTN announced it would premiere mid-season. It was supposed to premiere in February 2009 with only 13 episodes, however the network moved the series forward to premiere on January 8, 2009, with 18 episodes in total. Reception 'Ratings' "Pilot" was watched by 13.21 million Ryanland viewers. The episode garnered a 5.0/13 Rielsen ratings in the key 18–49 year-old demographic. The 5.0 refers to 5.0% of all people of ages 18–49 years old in the Ryanland, and the 13 refers to 13% of all people of ages 18–49 years old watching television at the time of the broadcast in the Ryanland. The episode won in it's timeslot against CTV's science-fiction series Supernatural, RBC's One Tree Hill, MyTV's Come On You Idiot and 'Til Death and ERC's Eleventh Hour.